Command Explanations

no-rc5 no-idea: When added to the
./config command,
this will eliminate the building of those encryption methods.
Patent licenses may be needed for you to utilize either of those
methods in your projects.

enable-tlsext: When added to the
./config command,
this switch will enable TLS Extensions. Currently this is only RFC
3546 and 4507bis for Server Name Indication. This allows the use of
multiple SSL certificates with multiple virtual hosts in Apache,
while using only one IP address and one port for all virtual hosts.

make MANDIR=/usr/share/man; make
MANDIR=/usr/share/man install: These commands
install OpenSSL with the man pages
in /usr/share/man instead of
/etc/ssl/man.

cp -v -r certs
/etc/ssl: The certificates must be copied manually
as the default installation skips this step.

Configuring OpenSSL

Config Files

/etc/ssl/openssl.cnf

Configuration Information

Most people who just want to use OpenSSL for providing functions to other
programs such as OpenSSH and web
browsers won't need to worry about configuring OpenSSL. Configuring OpenSSL is an advanced topic and so those
who do would normally be expected to either know how to do it or
to be able to find out how to do it.

Short Descriptions

is a Perl script that
scans all files in a directory and adds symbolic links to
their hash values.

openssl

is a command-line tool for using the various cryptography
functions of OpenSSL's
crypto library from the shell. It can be used for various
functions which are documented in man 1 openssl.

libcrypto.{so,a}

implements a wide range of cryptographic algorithms used
in various Internet standards. The services provided by
this library are used by the OpenSSL implementations of SSL, TLS
and S/MIME, and they have also been used to implement
OpenSSH, OpenPGP, and other cryptographic
standards.

libssl.{so,a}

implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL v2/v3) and
Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols. It provides
a rich API, documentation on which can be found by
running man 3
ssl.